


Home

by RovingRomy



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Serious Talks, and serious porn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-10
Updated: 2017-03-10
Packaged: 2018-10-02 10:40:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10216196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RovingRomy/pseuds/RovingRomy
Summary: During their night off, Vax and Keyleth go out behind the castle to look at the stars.





	

“We have the night off!” Keyleth says, bounding over to Vax with a huge smile on her face. Her enthusiasm is infectious, and despite his disgust at the obvious innuendo of Percy “showing” Vex'ahlia the “treasury”, Vax finds that he can’t fight the grin that’s taking over his face, or the sudden excitement he feels at the vague idea of spending the evening with Keyleth doing something other than collapsing into bed in complete exhaustion.

“You know what we should do?” Keyleth continues, taking both of his hands and bouncing on her toes.

“I have some ideas,” he replies, already thinking of all the ways he can make her moan his name.

“Let’s go out and look at the stars!” she says, her excitement so palpable that he can’t even bring himself to feel disappointed that her plans seem to involve some less “intimate” activities than what he’d had in mind.

“That sounds lovely,” he says, taking her hand in his and pulling her close for a kiss.

Keyleth hums happily against his lips, smiling brightly at him when they separate for a moment before she turns around, her hand still in his, heading for their bedroom.

“Where are you going?” he asks, trailing after her as she pulls on his hand.

She stops to face him, motioning at her midsection. “To take off our armor. I can’t wait to get out  of it and into something a little less binding.” Explanation given, she turns away, continuing down the hall.

Vax follows, jogging to keep up. “Is that a good idea? Sitting out there in the middle of nothing with no armor on?”

“Vax,” Keyleth says, looking at him like he’s started speaking another language as she opens the door to their room. “We’re home.”

That word, “home”, stops Vax in his tracks in the doorway. Is this… Whitestone… is it really home?

He’s never really thought of it as such before, not really. Emon had only just started to feel like home when they were forced to flee, and while Whitestone had been a kind of “home base” during their quest for the vestiges and their fight with the Conclave, he hadn’t considered it to be their home.

But watching the way Keyleth moves around the room, their room, with such ease and familiarity, so comfortably, Vax finds himself thinking that maybe it is, maybe it had become their home without him realizing it. Really, the room itself has certainly been starting to look like it. The space isn’t cluttered, exactly, but it’s accumulated quite a few of their things, stuff that they can’t or don’t need to take with them when they go off to find a vestige or get into a fight. Various souvenirs and trinkets that Keyleth had picked up from places they’ve visited are scattered around the surfaces of the room. A pile of her used, filled notebooks sets neatly ordered on a desk in the corner, next to the polish he uses on his daggers and the leather strap he uses to sharpen the blades. A box of sewing materials is open on the table next to Keyleth’s side of the bed, a tear in one of his shirts half sewn up, the thread and needle in a pile on top of it. The table by the window is home to a number of plants and flowers, a small placeholder for the garden she had lost in Emon. Among the flowers and leaves are placed a few stationary figures, birds carved from wood, made by Vax during their rare idle moments. A pair of his gloves still sets on top of the vanity where he had tossed them before cutting Keyleth’s hair. Next to them, one of his flasks and a few empty potion bottles that she had cleaned out to use when she finally gets around to making more with her alchemy kit, which is shoved halfway under the bed along with a pile of books.

The room is theirs. It’s warm and safe and lived in. Without realizing it, he’d made a space here with Keyleth that’s more “home” than any place he’s been since he was a kid.

“What are you doing?” Keyleth asks him, looking at him curiously as she finishs unlacing her leather bodice, slipping it off and tossing it on the bed.

Vax lets his eyes sweep appreciatively over the revealed skin before answering. “Just thinking.”

“Thinking what?” she replies, a smile playing along the edges of her lips as she moves to the drawers where they keep their rarely used non-armor, non-battle clothes and pulls out a pile of soft blue and white fabric.

“How beautiful you are,” he says, not wanting to get into a big conversation about where his thoughts had been.

Her face softens and she walks up to him, still bare from the waist up, the clothes she pulled out of the drawer still in her hand and wraps her arms around him, leaning up to capture his lips in a warm kiss. His hands land on her sides, moving around to her back, slowly stroking over the soft, pale skin. It takes all the restraint in him to not just forget about Keyleth’s plan for star gazing and toss her onto the bed. But he’s able to pull back, smiling at her as he pushes some hair away from her face.

She watches him for a long moment before her fingers move to the laces of his armor, starting to undo their firm hold. Vax starts to think that maybe Keyleth is thinking about forgetting her plan, in which case he’d be more than happy to follow her lead, but then she says, “Come on. You’re being a slow-poke.”

Vax chuckles, leaning in to leave a quick peck on her lips before releasing her, starting to work his way out of his armor while Keyleth turns around, removing her circlet to place it on the vanity, and undoing the clasp of her skirt, letting it fall to the floor around her feet. He watches her as he pulls off his armor, appreciating the expanse of perfect porcelain skin, thinking about how unbelievably, insanely lucky he is that he gets to have this with her, that gets to watch her like this.

He takes longer to change than he normally would, getting distracted from time to time by Keyleth, her long limbs, her skin, the shine of her hair as she moves around the room. But soon he’s wearing just a shirt and pants, free of the restrictive armor for what feels like the first time in a million years, and he reaches for a fur, thinking about how cool the temperature probably is.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to go out there without armor?” he asks one more time.

“It’ll be fine,” she says, assembling a pile of blankets at the end of the bed. “Just bring your daggers.”

He eyes her skeptically, which she seems to sense. Looking up at him with a smile, she says, “Plus, I might have a trick up my sleeve.”

“You don’t have any sleeves,” he points out, his eye trailing down to where her arms and shoulder are left bare by the dress she’s wearing. It’s a loose, flowy thing of blue and white - Air Ashari colors, he remembers - that wraps around her, leaving her arms and a fair portion of her chest uncovered. A certain part of him has no problem with the dress, grateful for the view of certain features it provides. Another part, the part of him that worries about her, that has been growing more and more worried about her since she nearly died on the Isle of Glass, looks at all that bare skin and thinks of the temperature outside. “You do know it’s still winter, right?”

She rolls her eyes at him, grabbing a blanket from the top of the pile and wrapping it around her shoulder. “It’s fine, Vax,” she says, picking up the blankets. “Lets go!”

It’s warmer outside than he’d thought it would be, not as cold as he would expect even for late winter. But it’s still chilly enough to make the his fingertips cold and a bit stiff with the absence of his gloves. Keyleth doesn’t seem to notice the cold at all, the blanket wrapped around her slipping down off of one shoulder as she practically skips to the place she’s leading him, her excitement once again making him smile, his hand reaching out to wrap around her waist and pull her close.

The spot she leads him to is at the top of a hill, still a bit away from the forest line. The castle isn’t too far away, but there’s enough distance between them and it that the space still feels private. And he’s glad for the high ground, that he can see everything around them.

Keyleth drops the pile of blankets onto the ground and closes her eyes for a moment, concentrating in that way she does when she’s casting a spell. He can feel the sizzle of magic in the air, but when she opens her eyes he’s not sure what she’s done.

He looks around for a few seconds before asking her, “What did you cast?”

“An anti-life shell,” she says, spreading a few blankets out on the grounds. “Nothing alive will be able to get to us.”

“What about not-alive things?” he questions as he starts to help her spread the blankets out into a warm, comfortable pile.

“We already saved the city from not-alive things,” she responds happily, plopping down on the blankets, wrapping one back around her shoulders.

Vax can’t help the smile the stretches across his face at how light and happy she seems. He wants to see her like this more often, wishes that there was some way he could make their life simpler so that she’s like this all the time. Sinking down next to her, he presses a kiss to her cheek, wrapping his arms around her to pull her close, following her gaze up to the sky as she readjusts, letting herself fall into his embrace.

“This is nice,” he murmurs after a while, his fingers stroking at her blanket-covered arm.

“It is,” she agrees, tearing her eyes away from the sky so she can turn her head, burying her face in his neck for a moment. “It’s been so long since I wasn’t terrified. I mean, I know there are still things out there we need to deal with. But at least right now it all doesn’t seem as bad, you know?”

“I do.” Vax knows, too, that there are still things out there they have to do, threats they have to deal with, and some of it is big and scary, like going to the Nine Hells to defeat Hotis once and for all. But even that doesn’t feel as frightening and heavy as the past few months have. The stuff with the Chroma Conclave was just so much. So much exhausting, emotional stuff for Vox Machina, and him and Keyleth in particular, was tied up with that fight. Killing Thordak to avenge his mother, taking down Raishan to avenge the Fire Ashari, finding Tiberius. All of that added to the fact that this time it was so much bigger than anything else they had dealt with, that these dragons had been threatening their whole world. It had been such a heavy weight on all of them, and now it seemed like anything else paled in comparison.

“Vax?” Keyleth’s voice pulls him out of his thoughts and he turns to look at her, surprised by her pensive expression. “Are you okay?”

“Of course I am,” he responds automatically, shooting her a smile that he knows doesn’t reach his eyes. It doesn’t seem to quell her worries, though, and she brings her hands up to clutch at his face, her brow furrowing deeper.

“It’s just… the things you said when we were arguing with Scanlan,” she pauses when she says it, her face becoming sad for a moment before her expression shifts again, back to the curious concern that had been covering her face before. “I know you kind of admired Scanlan in a way. And you did say that you thought he had it all figured out and that trying to follow him had helped pull you out of the darkness. I just… I don’t know. I’m worried that maybe now that know he was feeling the way he was that you might…” she lets out a heavy breath, shaking her head as she searches for the words.

“No,” he says, bringing his hand up to wrap around one of hers where it still rests against his face. “I was gobsmacked to hear him say those things. I won’t lie. And for a minute I did start to question things. But then I realized that… I’ve been happy. The things I’ve worked for and the things I based that on haven’t been a lie for me, even if they weren’t true for Scanlan.”

“Are you sure?” Keyleth asks, her voice still tight with worry. “Because the past couple of days you’ve just seemed kind of… off.”

A long sigh leaves Vax’s chest, his breath making Keyleth’s hair dance around her face. “I’ve been… upset, I guess, since the argument. But it’s more that I just… I feel kind of like a shitty friend, you know? I had no idea what was going on with him. I’ve looked up to him so much but I had no idea. I just feel bad.”

Her face finally softens. “I know. Me too.”

Pulling her closer, he drops a kiss on her forehead. “But other than that,” he says, his lips moving against her skin, “I really am okay. Those things I got from Scanlan, they just helped set me on the right path. I’m not happy now just because I’ve been clinging to those things. I’m happy now because I have a path and I know what I want for my future. I feel like I have a life beyond just whatever moment I’m in. I feel like I do have a future now.”

She searches his face for a few moments, her eyes looking deeply into his and moving over his features, searching for any hint of dishonesty. Eventually, though, she smiles, her eyes lighting up as she looks at him. “Okay,” she says, leaning in to kiss him.

Vax deepens the kiss, tangling his hand in her hair. He lets himself get lost in it, the feeling of her lips against his, the way he can feel her heartbeat speeding up where her chest is pressed against him, the way her hands clutch at his shirt.

When they pull back Keyleth smiles lazily at him before moving to rest her head against his shoulder, and he lets any idea of taking things further float away for the time being.

He’s not sure how long they sit out there, watching the sky. Keyleth points out a few stars to him that she recognizes, a few constellations she knows the stories of. Vex knows far more about the stars than anyone he knows, can use them to guide her way almost as though they were a map, but she’s never been very interested in talking about them, in the stories behind their names. Keyleth knows a few things here and there, but listening to her talk, the way  her voice speeds up in excitement as she shares the knowledge she has, makes his heart swell with happiness, and he finds that he’s having more fun now, just sitting next to Keyleth and listening to her while she talks about the stars, than he has in a long time.

“I love the night sky,” she sighs. “The Feywild was beautiful, but it’s sky… it was nothing like ours is at night”.

“I always love the way it looks when we’re further away from the cities,” Vax says, keeping his voice low, not wanting to interrupt the peaceful bubble around them. “I remember looking up at the sky when we were in Pyrah and just being stunned by how clear it was.”

“It’s like that in Zephra, too,” she adds, nodding her head excitedly. “So clear that it looks like there are millions and millions of little diamonds in the sky.”

“I guess we’ll find out soon if it’s like that where the Water Ashari are.” He says it as almost an afterthought, but the way Keyleth tenses in his arms as she takes in a sharp breath draws his attention, and when he looks at her he sees that the smile has dropped from her face, another pensive expression once again furrowing her brow. “Kiki? What’s wrong?”

She doesn’t say anything, shaking her head as she looks down at the ground.

“Hey, come on,” he says, taking her face in one hand to bring her eyes to his. “What’s going on?”

Her eyes search his, looking for something she must find, because she takes in a deep breath, saying, “I’m scared to go.”

“To the Water Ashari?”

She nods, her eyes moving away from his face to look back down at the ground.

“Kiki,” Vax starts, his other hand coming up to grasp her other cheek so that her face is framed by his hands. “You’re going to do great. Really. You’re going to kill this thing. You’ve come so far and you’re so strong. And you’ve got all of us behind you, and if you think we’re going to let you fail, you’re crazy.”

“It’s not that,” she says, her voice small and quiet. “Well, I guess it is a little. But it’s not just that.”

“Then what is it?” he asks, confused.

Keyleth is silent for a long time, swallowing hard as her eyes grow shiny with tears. “What if I don’t find her?” she finally says, her words shaky.

Vax knows immediately what she means. This is the last leg of her Aramente. There’s nowhere else to go after this but home. It’s her last chance to find her mother.

“If I don’t find her there, or at least find something to give me some kind of idea of what happened, then that’s it. There isn’t anywhere else I can go to look for her or to ask about her. If she isn’t there and they don’t know anything, then that’s it. Especially if…” she trails off, biting her lip as a tear falls down her cheek.

“If what?” he asks, wiping the tear away with his thumb.

They sit in silence once again, the minutes stretch on, before she finally speaks.

“I’ve never thought that she was dead,” Keyleth says, looking down at her hands. “I would know if that happened. I’d be able to feel it. So would my father. I’m sure of it. So I always figured that something happened while she was on her Aramente. I never wanted to think about it too much, but…”

Vax waits for her to continue, but she remains silent for a long moment, her brow furrowing. “But?” he eventually prompts, taking one of her hands in his, stroking his thumb over her knuckles.

She takes a deep breath before starting. “Lately I have been thinking about it. If she’s not dead there’s really only two options. One is kind of what I guess I always just thought. That something happened to keep her from coming home to us. That for some reasons she couldn’t come back. And I just…”

Her voice trails off again, and this time Vax doesn’t say anything. He gives her the time she needs to gather her thoughts. Eventually she turns to look at him, here eyes gazing into his, a tear running down her cheek. “I don’t see how that can be true. I just can’t.”

“Why not?”

“My father and I were waiting for her back home. We’ve been waiting for her. And if she wanted to come back to us…” Keyleth shakes her head, looking down at her lap. “I love you so much, Vax,” she whispers, her hand tightening around his.

The seeming shift in conversation takes him off guard, but his response is automatic. “And I love you,” he tells her, pulling himself closer to her, eliminating the little space still between them until they’re pressed against one another. He drops a lingering kiss on her shoulder where the blanket has slid away.

Keyleth doesn’t look at him, but she turns her head toward him a bit, tilting it so her temple rests against his forehead. “I never want to be separated from you. I can’t even imagine what that would be like,” she says, her voice low and quiet, slightly shaky as she tries to hold her tears back.  "And I know for certain that if anyone tried to keep me from you that I would never stop fighting to get back to you. Even if it killed me.“

Vax lets out a heavy breath at her words, shifting his face to press a kiss to the corner of her mouth. She leans into it, breathing in deeply at the conact, and turns her body into his, her knees folding over his lap as her arms moved to wrap around his shoulders, her head resting in the crook of his neck. His arms envelop her, pullling her close, one hand coming to rest at her hip while the other strokes her back with slow, comforting touches.

He holds her for a long time, listening to her breathing, uneven as she cries. Eventually he feels her chest expand with a deep breath, her hand clenching in his shirt. "And honestly, I just can’t believe anyone would be able to take her. She was so powerful. Her skill and abilities were already pretty much where I’m at now when she left Zephra. And she would have just learned even more during her Aramente. I just can’t believe that anyone would be able to keep her against her will. Especially if she wanted to come back to us.”

“What are you saying, Kiki?”

“That… she didn’t come back because she didn’t want to.” Keyleth’s voice cracks at the end of her sentence, and he can feel her tears wet against his skin when she turns her face into his neck. Vax strokes her back and holds her close, letting her cry as he thinks back to what she had said the day before, after the argument with Scanlan, her reaction to Percy saying that they were family.

Family leaves.

That reaction, the way she’d said it, so pained and broken, had surprised him. He’d never had any idea that she thought that way, and she had never really said or done anything that even implied that.

But if this is what’s been on her mind lately, if she had started thinking that her mother didn’t want to come back home, it made far more sense.

“Keyleth,” Vax whispers, leaning back a bit and taking her face between his hands so he can look into her eyes. They’re glassy and swollen, her nose and cheeks splotchy and red, but he’s still left breathless at how beautiful she is, and he can’t help the way his heartbeat picks up when their eyes meet. “I’m never going to leave you,” he tells her, his voice quiet but firm, a fierceness to his tone that reveals the depth of feeling to his words.

Her hands clench into his shirt where they rest against his chest, a small smile pulling at the corners of her lips that holds a twinge of sadness. “Vax. Come on. This… all of this, Vox Machina. It’s going to end one day. Soon probably. I’m almost done with my Aramente. I’m going to have to go back to Zephra sooner rather than later.”

“And I’m going to come with you,” he tells he without hesitation. “I already said I would.”

Her eyes take in his face, scrutinizing his expression, her eyebrows drawing together in confusion. “I thought… I didn’t think you meant…”

Vax’s thumbs stroke at her cheeks, leaning in closer to her before he speaks. “I meant that I was coming back with you to stay.”

“Really?” she says, her voice small and almost disbelieving.

“Yes,” he insists. “You’re my future, Keyleth. And like you said, if anyone or anything ever tried to keep me away from you I would never stop fighting to get back to you. Never.”

The smile that spreads over her face is so bright it’s practically blinding, but it vanishes just as quickly as it appeared, a look of sad resignation taking it’s place. “That doesn’t mean you’re never going to leave.”

Vax thinks back to that night in Whitestone after Vex died, when he’d gone to Keyleth scared out of his mind about the deal he’d made with the Raven Queen, when she’d told him about how long she’d live, how scared she was of having to watch him die. It was something that was always in the back of his mind, something that he tried to ignore, but he knew it was something that was always going to be present for Keyleth, that she could never ignore.

“I’ll never choose to leave you. I will never willingly leave you. And when the time comes that I have to leave you, I’m going to go kicking and screaming, even then,” he promises, pressing a lingering kiss to her forehead.

He feels her let out a heavy, tense breath, her body sagging against his as her breath slides across the skin of his neck. She rests her head against his shoulder, her arms moving to wrap around his waist, pulling herself tightly against him. “I’ll never leave you, Vax,” she whispers against his skin. “Never.”

She pulls back after a while, her hands reaching up to cup his face, turning it toward her so she can press her lips to his. Vax responds to the kiss eagerly, one hand sliding up her back, desperate to feel the skin that’s covered by the blanket still around her shoulders. The other hand moves to her leg, pushing the blanket and her skirt up so he can slide his fingers up her skin.

His lungs start to burn, so he pulls away, leaving wet, breathless kisses down her jaw and her neck, his hand squeezing at her thigh before it starts moving further up. Keyleth sighs, tipping her head backward to give his mouth more room to explore as she unfolds her legs, moving to drape them over his lap as she presses her body against his insistently.

The hand he has at her back moves lower, pulling her into his lap. She goes willingly, settling against him, her side pressing against his chest, and bends her knees so that she can curl her body closer to his. One of her hands slides to the back of his head, her fingers tangling into his hair, the other clenching into the fur still settled on his shoulders, her grip spasming as his lips attach to the sensitive spot behind her ear and his hand reaches the top of her thigh, a low moan finding its way out of her mouth. She pushes the fur off, and it falls into a heap behind him as her hand returns to his shoulder, clenching this time into the fabric of his shirt. The blanket slips down, gathering around her elbows.

Vax’s fingers slide further up, gliding over her hot wetness with a gentle touch. Her hips buck up toward his hand as she gasps, seeking out more of his touch. He strokes his fingertips over her again, firmer this time, stopping to press against the bud at the top. Keyleth’s teeth sink into her bottom lip as she groans softly, trying to stay quiet as they usually have to do when their friends are all sleeping in the rooms surrounding them.

He pulls his hand out from under her skirt for a moment and she whimpers in disappointment, still biting at her lip. The tips of his fingers are wet with her, and he presses his thumb below her lip, pulling at it. “You don’t have to be quiet,” he tells her, his voice low and rumbling. “We’re far enough away from the castle that nobody can hear us.” He drags his lips up her jaw, stopping at her ear. “I want to hear you.”

Keyleth gasps, and suddenly her breaths are heavy and loud. Her legs shift toward him, opening further, and she whimpers again, needy for his touch. Vax slides his hand back under her skirt, stroking at her firmly a few times, drawing out a low groan from her throat, before he slides two fingers inside of her, thrusting deep and slow.

A sharp gasp leaves her as she pulls at his hair, her hips starting to move against his hand. It makes Vax groan, loud and unexpected, his forehead pressing against her jaw. Her backside is moving against him where he’s already hard and aching for her, the pressure just enough to feel good, but not nearly enough to be satisfying. It makes a part of him want to move his fingers faster, desperate to bring her to climax so she can turn her attention to him and his desire, but he fights against it, keeping the rhythm of his fingers inside of her slow and steady, thrusting deeply inside of her, curving them on the downstroke as he drags them out of her purposefully, just the way he knows she likes.

Her breath is heavy, leaving her in a series of loud gasps and desperate whimpers. The sound of it make him even harder with want, practically throbbing with how much he needs her. She throws her head back, the skin of her throat pale and enticing in the moonlight. His arm is wrapped securely around her back, supporting her weight as she arches her back, her hips continuing to roll along with the rhythm of his fingers inside of her. He slides his mouth up her throat, savoring the way her moans and whimpers vibrate against his lips.

Vax can tell that she’s close, her moans becoming higher and sharper as her hands start to pull even more firmly at his hair and his shirt. He adds a third finger, maintaining his deliberate pace as he presses his thumb against her clit, stroking it firmly, closing his eyes against the way her hips start to thrust faster and harder into him, meeting his aching hardness with harder, faster movements. Her gasps and whimpers have turned into loud, sobbing moans, and he loves the sound of it, loves being able to hear what he can do to her without having to worry about the others hearing. He opens his eyes so he can watch her face, the way her mouth hangs open, her eyes closed tightly, the pleasure she’s feeling from his fingers taking over her expression, morphing it into one of blissful euphoria.

“Vax!” His name tears out of her lips on a heavy gasp, followed by a series of pleasure-filled cries as she pulses around his fingers, her back arching deeply as she chases the sensation. Vax’s eyes sweep over her body, the look on her face, the way her throat tightens with each moan and sob that escapes her, her middle moving with a wave-like motion as she moves her hips against his hand, her legs tense as her feet brace against the ground for leverage. He always finds himself so fascinated by her body when she’s climaxing, the way she seems to lose all control over it. The fact that he can do that to her, to this powerful druid who controls the elements and can bend the earth to her will, well… it does wonders for his ego.

Her body slumps against him, her chest heaving with heavy breaths as she curls herself further into him, her arms wrapping tightly around his shoulders as she buries her face in his neck. The blanket falls away from her completely, pooling around her waist and resting partially in his lap. She doesn’t seem to notice the cold, her hold on him steadfast. He strokes her back, pulling his fingers out of her and stroking her thigh with the same rhythm, knowing it will help her calm down.

Keyleth’s lips press lightly against his neck, trailing sweet, gentle kisses down toward his collar bone, where she dips her tongue into the indent there, pushing his shirt aside for more access. Vax groans as she shifts against him, turning so she’s facing him more as she brings her lips to his, her kiss deep and enthusiastic. He clutches at her desperately, trying to pull her closer, but she resists, moving backwards and out of his lap. His eyes follow her, dazed, as she places her hands on his knees, pushing his legs apart and kneeling between them, her hands sliding up his thighs at an agonizing pace as she brings her lips back to his neck, grazing her teeth over his pounding pulse.

His fingers tangle into her hair as her lips continue their progress down his throat, the center of his chest, until she’s stopped by the collar of his shirt. She pulls back a bit, her hand pressing into his sides, pushing his shirt up to his arm pits. His muscles tighten as the cold air hits him, but as soon as he feels her tongue sliding from his navel up to his sternum his skin heats up, his blood practically boiling at her touch. Her hands stroke up and down his sides as her mouth moves up to one of his nipples, grazing her teeth over it before laving at it with her tongue. The jolt of pleasure he get from it makes him thrust his hips forward, his need to feel her around him mounting to almost unbearable levels. He looks down at her, wondering if maybe she’s teasing him, to be met with her eyes watching him, wide and eager, studying every reaction he has, her lips still wrapped around his nipple, sucking lightly.

There’s never any guile to Keyleth’s touch when they’re together like this. Every touch of her lips, her tongue, her fingers, every movement of her hips, every arching of her back, none of it is ever teasing. Instead, everything she does is completely, almost achingly earnest, eager to do what he likes, what makes him feel good. He’s surprised by how sexy he finds that earnestness, that eagerness. He loves the way her eyes watch him, wide and curious, the way her lips turn up in a small smile when he really likes something. It’s the way she’s watching him now, a smile in her eyes as her tongue circles around the bud of his nipple one last time, the deep groan that reverberates through him loud in the space between them as his fingers clench in her hair.

Her lips start to move back down his stomach, stopping here and there to press gentle kisses against individual scars. Vax leans back, taking one of his hands out of her hair, placing it on the ground behind him to support his weight as he leans on it to give her more room. She reaches the waist of his pants, moving back and meeting his eyes as her fingers make quick work of the laces there. His fingers are still tangled in her hair at the back of head, and he has to fight the impulse to push her down toward him when she finally pushes his pants down his hips, releasing him, hard and hot, twitching with need, into the cold air of the night. Instead, he strokes his thumb in a circle against her scalp, eliciting a happy smile as she wraps her fingers around him, stroking with a loose, slow touch. Vax’s mouth falls open as he moans, and he’s powerless to stop his hips from thrusting toward her, desperate for more.

She leans over, one of her hands sliding up the skin of his stomach as she runs her tongue over him, from base to tip, flicking at the underside of the tip before closing her lips around it, sucking lightly, her hand still stroking him, her touch becoming a bit firmer. His head falls back, sighing in relief at finally being touched, crying out at how good it already feels. He’s really not sure how long he’s going to be able to last.

Keyleth’s lips slide further down, taking more of him into her mouth, curling her tongue around him. She pulls back, sucking lightly as she goes, and she repeats those movements a few times. He can feel her eyes on him, watching his reactions carefully, as she always does. With some effort he’s able to open his eyes, lowering his head so he can watch her. She must see something in his gaze, because the grip of her hand tightens a bit and she moans, the sound vibrating through him and against him, making him gasp.

He can’t take it anymore. He needs her close to him, to be able to feel her body against his, to be able to bury his face in her neck and breath in the scent of her hair. The hand tangled into the waves at the back of her head pulls her back, and he doesn’t even need to say anything for her to know exactly what he wants. She straightens up, moving forward so she can straddle his hips. His hands move to her thighs as she slides into his lip, pushing her dress up almost to her waist so he can grasp at her hips as she lowers herself, taking him inside of her slowly, rolling her hips deliberately until he’s settled deep. Vax’s arms move up her back, pulling her close as he turns his face into her hair, thrusting up to encourage her movements.

She gasps at the motion and starts to move against him, meeting his deep thrusts with  a slow roll of her hips, setting up a steady rhythm as she digs her nails into his bicep, breathing out his name.

His breath is already coming in sharp gasps as he starts to pepper kisses along her jaw, the side of her neck, and further down. Vax is desperate to feel her skin sliding against him, so he slides one of his hands around to her front, tugging insistently at where her dress is tied together at her side. Finally, it falls open, revealing her body to him. He drags his lips from her neck down the center of her chest, pulling her close to him so that they’re pressed together, skin to skin, the sides of her dress her hanging around her and his shirt still pushed up under his arms.

The speed of Keyleth’s thrusts picks up, her back arching so that the angle changes, making them both whimper at the new sensation. “Oh, Vax,” she moans as his hand runs up her side, his hips meeting hers thrust for thrust. Her fingers tremble as they stroke at his jaw, her eyes gazing into his, hazy with pleasure.

“Keyleth,” he whispers, his breath fanning out over her face. “You’re amazing.” His eyes sweep down her body, taking in her perfect skin, the way her body curves in such away that she always fits perfectly against him, the breathtaking way her hips are circling against his, giving him just what he needs. He brings his focus back to her face, taking in the way her eyes are watching him, her gaze tender, even as her brow furrows as the pleasure starts to reach a breaking point. “So fucking amazing.”

She leans forward to kiss him, her lips moving over his almost lazily before she breaks away, her breath pushing out of her in short whimpers. “Vax,” she whines, her thighs tightening around him. “I-I…”

Vax can tell how close she is, can feel it in the way her body is growing tense around him. He’s close, too, desperately close, but he wants her to come first, wants to feel the way she flutters around him, he way her skin heats up as she loses herself on top of him. His hands take ahold of her hips, helping her to tilt them so the angle changes once again, so that her clit drags against him as he moves in and out of her.

Keyleth presses herself against him as her back bows deeply, her breasts pushing into his chest, her hips pushing against him hard. She all but screams his name as she falls apart, her walls throbbing around him as she clutches at him, a loud whimper escaping her with each wild thrust of her hips.

It’s the sound of her cries that finally break his control, his hips snapping into hers as his hands pull her even more firmly against him, his body trembling and stiffening as he spasms inside of her, his head falling to her shoulder as he lets out a series of deep, loud moans. He clutches at her desperately as the pleasure tears through him, hot and blissful, wringing out his body and leaving him limp and satisfied.

“Mmmm,” Keyleth hums happily, her head resting against his shoulder. He’s holding her close, her palms flat against his chest. His hands stroke up and down her back soothingly beneath her dress, turning his head to press a kiss to her forehead. His body is feeling loose and heavy, so he lies back against the blanket beneath them, bringing Keyleth with him, reaching over to grab another blanket and spread it over them when he feels her shiver.

“That was nice,” she sighs. “More than nice. We’re really good at that, aren’t we? I mean, I know I don’t really have any other experience to compare it to, but I’m pretty sure we’re really good at that.”

Vax chuckles. It’s not like he has a ton of experience to compare to. Certainly more than Keyleth has, but he’s pretty sure he’s on the lower side of Vox Machina as far as his number of partners is concerned. But yeah, he thinks they’re really good at it. It’s certainly the best he’s ever had, by far, and he suspects that has more than a little to do with the way he feels about her. “Yeah,” he agrees. “We’re definitely really good at that.”

Keyleth smiles at him, an innocent joy in her eyes as she watches him, before resting her head back against his shoulder, her eyes sliding shut, the smile still pulling at her lips.

A warm feeling spreads through Vax’s chest as he looks at her, his fingers trailing through her hair and down her back. It’s a mix of contentment, happiness, joy, and hope. For the first time in a long time, perhaps ever, he knows he has a future, and that future is Keyleth. No matter what she does or where she goes, he’s going to be by her side through it all.

That’s when he realizes that his real home isn’t Whitestone or Emon, or any of the places he’s been since he and Vex left Syngorn.

Keyleth is his home. The past few months, no matter where they’ve been, he’s felt settled, at peace, because he was with her. That’s where he belongs. It’s not all of their things in their room back in the castle that makes it feel like home. It’s the fact that she’s there, that it’s a place they share.

Her breath is deep and even against his chest, and he thinks she’s fallen asleep until he hears her say, her voice groggy and sleepy, “You know I’m madly in love with you too, right?”

Vax smiles, thinking back to his words from after the fight with Scanlan. “Yeah. I know.”

He can feel her lips curve into a small smile as her hand slides across his chest, settling over his heart beat. His eyes turn up toward the stars, watching them twinkle up in the sky, and he can’t help but smile, finding himself very happy that Keyleth suggested this little star gazing trip.

Eventually his eyes drift closed, giving into the tiredness overtaking his body. He wraps Keyleth up tightly in his arms, falling asleep as he thinks about the future that’s stretching out before them, feeling safe and content because even out here, as long as she’s with him, they’re home.


End file.
